Worship and Purification

March is a month of purification for Hindus in Indonesia. In the days leading up to Nyepi, the Hindu Day of Silence and start of the Saka New Year, thousands of Hindus carried baskets full of flower and fruit offerings for the gods across a rickety bamboo bridge to the edge of the sea near the Segara Temple. There they performed a ritual of purification as part of the Melasti purification festival. When they day turned to dusk, the devotees sent their day turned to dusk, the devotees sent their offerings out to the deep, dark blue sea. They also collected seawater to be used for the rituals that would cleanse their souls and purify their bodies.